U.S president Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un at the Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, February 28, 2019. (REUTERS/Kham, Leah Mills, Kim Hong-Ji, Kim Kyung-Hoon, Jorge Silva, Issei Kato, Peter Blaza)
Daryna Sarhan
U.S President Donald Trump failed to reach a deal with North Korea president Kim Jong-un over nuclear disarmament at a summit held in Hanoi, Vietnam.
The two leaders came to an impasse after Kim Jong-un demanded that the U.S lift its sanctions and Trump declined because North Korea refused to give up its nuclear weapons.
“They wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn’t do that,” said Trump at a news conference after the talks broke down.
Trump went on to say there hasn’t been enough progress on denuclearization for the U.S to agree on this deal.
Aurel Braun, a professor of international relations and political science at the University of Toronto said that there was not a real meeting of minds.
“The preparatory work was not adequate, they did not find out that there were these major issues, so when they met, it became evident that they were not on the same page,” said Braun
Braun said that the political climate at home affected Trump overseas, which made him vulnerable.
“Kim Jong-un became emboldened by Donald Trump’s trouble in the U.S after [Micheal] Cohen’s testimony, he felt that he could get a much better deal because of Trump’s seeming weakness,” he said. “He may have concluded that if you press hard enough, Trump will be so desperate for a deal, clearly there was a miscalculation.”
Braun said the U.S has been providing some aid to North Korea for decades, despite their nuclear weaponry. According to Braun, North Korea has been fooling the U.S by saying that they have started the process of denuclearization and in exchange for American food and fuel.
“I think there’s definitely a distinct possibility, that they will get a deal because North Korea is in a desperate situation economically, conditions are nearly catastrophic and they are still in power,” said Braun. “There are over a thousand people in concentration camps, this is a horrific regime, it is brutal it is criminal.”
The first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un last June in Singapore made history. During the meeting both parties signed an agreement aimed at building a peace regime on the Korean peninsula. The meeting has been highly criticized due to a lack of outcome.
The current deal aimed at denuclearizing North Korea. Both leaders planned to sign a peace declaration that ends hostilities between the two countries and improves their relations. In addition North Korea was to return more remains of U.S troops who died during the Korean War.
North Korea also agreed to stop producing materials for nuclear bombs at its Yongbyon facility. In exchange, the U.S was to push to lift some UN sanctions on Pyongyang so it can pursue joint economic projects with South Korea.